


Shooting Stars

by scratches



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies), WandaVision (TV)
Genre: Agent Jimmy Woo, Ava Starr - Freeform, Canon-Typical Violence, Contemplation, Darcy is a bad ass, Draw Me Like One of Your French Girls, End Game canon, F/M, Hope Van Dyne - Freeform, Minor Spoilers Wandavision, Monica Rambeau - Freeform, Nick Fury - Freeform, Only One Bed, Recreational Drug Use, Resolved Sexual Tension, Scott Lang - Freeform, Skrulls - Freeform, Steve left him, bucky pov, jane foster - Freeform, mostly that is, safe houses, vague FaTWS ideas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-12 16:34:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29887404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scratches/pseuds/scratches
Summary: Bucky and Sam end up at a safe house in the middle of the New Mexican desert after the mission against Zemo implodes. Is there more than dirt, mountains, and fantastic sunsets waiting for him?
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Darcy Lewis
Comments: 12
Kudos: 113





	Shooting Stars

There was a curvy brunette in the driver’s seat of the dusty brown pick up that just skidded to a stop in front of him and Sam. She rolled down her window with the crank, her arm working it quickly, and looked Sam in the eyes, "Hey fellas," the woman winked, "Either one of you know where the Smithsonian is? I'm looking for a fossil."

Sam barked out a laugh, "Darcy."

She smirked, "Sam." Another inside joke he was _sure_ that Sam won’t explain to him.

She reached behind her and popped the lock to the back of the quad cab, evidently where he was going to make the trip. Great, Bucky thought, another backseat. The woman did the same to the front seat and Sam walked around the front of the truck and opened the door. "You're not waiting for an invitation or anything are you?" She let her pale elbow hang from the window. The large black glasses that covered her face were pushed up to her hair line with her other hand revealing bright blue eyes, "Because I don't have one."

Bucky looked between her and Sam. Sam buckled himself into the front bench seat and pulled out his phone to plug into the charger hanging from the lighter. "She doesn't bite."

"Not hard at least," she mumbled.

Bucky pressed the push button on the dirty, scratched door and pulled it open. He pulled himself into the seat by a leather strap and pulled the door closed. The truck smelled like citrus, lavender, and old, sweaty leather. It wasn't pleasant, but it definitely wasn't terrible. Nothing will clear the smell of the train car they traveled in for three days out of his nose, at least not soon.

"Darcy, Bucky. Bucky, Darcy." Sam's nose was already in his phone, scrolling through messages from unknown, unsaved numbers. The introduction was quick and she only winked at him before pushing the clutch in and shifting into gear. 

"Do you have plenty of room?" Darcy asked. 

He looked at his knees and then back up to the rearview mirror. Her eyes were looking at the road, a long dirty road with nothing in sight for miles. Bucky hated the southwest, he was surprised that she was able to find them at all. "Yeah, thanks." He rubbed his neck before pulling the lap belt across himself. 

"I packed you guys a lunch, it's in the cooler," she pointed with her thumb, "but if you're a vegetarian you're shit out of luck. It's turkey sandwiches." Darcy smiled at him in the mirror before pushing her glasses back down her nose. She revved the engine before she hit the gas and burned a nice track of rubber on asphalt. 

Sam lifted his free hand and pushed against the dash to keep himself steady as they fishtailed, "I see your driving hasn't improved."

The loud laugh that she let out was nice, a bit piercing, but nice. Not many people laugh with him around. "I beg to differ, that was on purpose, not accidental this time."

The safe house that they finally stopped at had a black gravity fed gas pump next to a sun bleached barn. The house itself was small, beige, and the adobe had been patched over and over. There was a latilla covered porch on the front, water catchment barrels at the corners, and he could see burlap sails behind the house covering a decent sized garden. 

The sun was finally setting behind a row of mountains to the west and bugs buzzed their happiness at the retreating heat. Bucky watched a rabbit bounce from behind one rain barrel where a spot of green grass was growing from a drip at the spigot to under a honey locust. The flat bean-like seed pods that hung from the branches swung in the wind. And behind everything, a large satellite dish sat back hundreds of yards into the desert. And around the dish, a large array of solar panels were built with a singular wind turbine creaking in the light wind.

“It isn’t much, but the boss couldn’t afford much when we were looking. But she does the trick. No one has ever bothered Jane and I out here.” Bucky could hear her press the emergency break in with a rusty squeak and for good measure he watched as she shifted the truck into first gear. Darcy wasn’t stupid, she knew that the emergency break might fail in a piece of crap truck like that.

“Better than our last digs,” Sam said. 

The buckle across his lap depressed and he let the two canvas straps fall to the side. Bucky reached for the cooler and the parchment paper the three of them threw to the floor after they ate their lunch and for the plastic water bottles and the one two liter of soda the three of them shared during the trip. It had been pulled out somewhere between their pick up point and after they stopped to fill the tank with the portable gas can in the back of the flat bed. 

“You don’t have to do that,” Darcy leaned over the front bench seat. Bucky turned his head and got an eyeful of her cleavage. It wasn’t even that much, she had a black scoop neck shirt on that was understated. The only thing on her that really stood out was her bright red lipstick. “I can get it once you get settled.” Her arm grabbed the half eaten bag of salt and vinegar chips, the bag crinkled in her hand.

He slowly moved his eyes up from her chest to her face and pulled the trash closer to his chest anyway, “It isn’t a problem, really.” Bucky opened the small cooler and pressed the papers and empty plastic into it before snapping it closed. 

She sat back on her heels, her ass hitting the horn for a second before she moved again. “Woops,” Darcy laughed and Bucky watched Sam roll his eyes. He was sure Sam would have something to say to Bucky later. There wasn’t much that would get past Sam (unfortunately). He was like Steve. Steve might have played the blushing virgin for others but Bucky knew what really went on in his friend’s head sometimes. The pin-up drawings he did for cash through their adolescence was evidence enough. “We only have two beds and a couch, so I hope one of you doesn’t mind the living room. I’ve broken in my mattress and the memory foam on the couch is better anyway.”

“We’ll make it work,” Sam said as the both of them opened their doors and left the truck. 

When the three of them made it into the house, it really was small. She wasn’t kidding about that. The walls were old with matching adobe, more plaster was cracking and peeling inside than out. There were light yellow curtains in the windows with dark blackout curtains pulled around them to keep the sun out and to give the home some privacy. The house was that kind of hot you only got in New Mexico. Oppressive outside but slightly liveable in an adobe house, the clay bricks kept some of the day time heat out. 

They actually stepped _down_ into the house from the threshold. The house was a few feet under the ground, and that would explain the short roof. Sam could have jumped easily onto it. The woman probably could have too if she had a running start. Bucky was sure of it.

The living room was tidy, a grey couch the main sitting spot with one small arm chair with a bright knitted blanket across it. Darcy, because he knew that whatever agency that hadn’t funded the safe house didn’t put them there, had small potted plants around the house, paper covered lamps were stuck in the corners and across the edge of the ceiling faded glazed tiles were grouted in. He could see a small kitchen through the room and past a curved doorway. It was tidy and the small table in there had two short mis-matched chairs, perfect for two people that were her height.

“The bathroom is through there,” Darcy interrupted his mulling. Her pale arm pointed to a closed turquoise door. “My bedroom is the green door,” her arm moved, “and the extra bed is behind the peach door.”

“I’ll stay out here,” Bucky volunteered. The triggers might be out of his head but he still liked an easy out if he needed to walk at midnight. 

Sam snorted, “I’m not going to fight you, man.”

She walked the two of them through the security measures, showed them how to turn on the video feed from the perimeter, and where she kept all of the weapons. The amount of fire power that the small place had surprised him. The small woman didn’t look like someone who would lift a gun, working for S.W.O.R.D, S.H.I.E.L.D, or independently, some people just didn’t look the type. 

After Darcy passed him and Sam some clean clothes from a chest in the spare bedroom and they showered, she grabbed some vegetables from the garden and the three of them sat at a small table outside that had been hidden by the rain barrels. The sun slid behind the mountains while they were out there. The night was clear, the moon just a slit and the stars bright above them. Behind the house he could see the lights of the satellite dish Jane had installed for the house. It was strange, the calmness of it all. 

When they finally made it into the house, Darcy helped him set up the couch bed. “Unlike me, the couch pulls out,” she clapped him on his vibranium shoulder, “so you should be able to get comfortable.” 

Bucky blinked at her, one of the cushions in his hands. Thankfully they had a bit of give and his vibranium hand squished it until there was no squishing to be had. “Your jokes haven't gotten better, Darcy,” Sam said, laughing from the kitchen.

Darcy shrugged and pulled the other cushion off. “Probably a good thing,” she put it on the tiled floor before reaching for the metal handle and pulling it up and out. “I think I left my good jokes in my other pants.”

It was like a magnet. His eyes went from the clutched cushion in his hand to her ass and back, it was quick, but he knew she caught him, her grin said it all when he looked over at her. Bucky huffed and shook his head. 

Hours later, Bucky snapped awake. There were footsteps on the roof. They were light but they definitely weren’t trying to make it so they couldn’t be heard. Sam knew not to do this kind of shit to him so it had to be Darcy. He listened as she made her way across the roof before she settled over the kitchen. The flicking of an old lighter was light but he definitely heard it before he could smell reefer from above him. 

He stared at the dark ceiling for a few minutes, waiting to see what she would do next. The slide of a foot moved on the tin roof and the bass beat of a song came through the ceiling. She must have been listening to her phone. He couldn't hear any lyrics, but Bucky is pretty sure that Shuri had him listen to this at some point. The beat was familiar. Maybe she had played it while he was in cryo. 

Pushing himself up, Bucky ran his hands through his shorn hair and sighed. He wasn't going to be able to sleep. Sleep was still elusive for him, years after the triggers were taken, months after returning to the living.

The tile under his feet was cool, a stark contrast to the day they just had. Bucky flexed his toes and stretched them. Fuck shoes. He had been stuck in a pair of boots for days. 

With a push, he stood and cracked his neck. The door creaked as he opened it. The smell of her reefer was stronger outside but the breeze coming down the mountain was blowing it in the opposite direction. Bucky pushed the door closed and walked around the side of the roof to the lowest point and grabbed the metal edge. It only took a little bit of effort but he flipped himself into the roof and Darcy choked and sputtered around the smoke she exhaled.

"Damn, ninja much?" The joint glowed between two fingers on her left hand and there was a bottle of something clear next to her. 

"Not anymore," Bucky replied. 

In the dark, and it _was_ dark, the woman smiled and patted the roof with her hand. She picked her phone up and silenced it. "I'm watching the Perseids, pop a squat." Darcy waved the joint and asked, "Is this going to bother you?" 

"Nah," Bucky moved closer and sat on the slightly inclined roof next to her. "If you don't mind?" He held his Vibranium hand towards her.

Darcy's brows lifted and she passed him the joint, "Well, well, well. Something the books never published."

Bucky held the joint and inhaled. It was familiar, something he hadn't even thought to do since before he shipped out. There's a fleeting memory of Steve telling him his mother would tan his hide if she catches them, but it's fleeting and doesn't stick to be mulled over. "Books didn't publish much of anything." He exhaled and passed the joint back. "Have you seen many yet?"

"Not yet, but it's early." She inhaled again and passed it back. "Sorry if I woke you up, I'm not the quietest person around."

"You did," he inhaled, "but I wasn't going to sleep much anyway." Bucky watched her raise her eyebrows, “It doesn’t come easy.”

"And Sam?" 

"He'll be out until noon, sleeps like the dead at safe houses," he passed it back to her, "nothin'll wake him up...usually." 

She hmm'd and the both of them went quiet, passing the joint back and forth until it was finished. Bucky had that floaty feeling start to edge into his consciousness when he saw his first shooting star. One after another they flew across the sky, no less than ten seconds apart, lighting the sky up. The cap unscrewing from the glass bottle pulled him back to the present, the tiny high he was able to catch made his brain calm and slow for a fleeting moment. 

"Jane and Thor loved watching the Perseids," she huffed before taking a long swig from the bottle. "I didn't appreciate it at the time, but once everyone was snapped, I drove and drove until I could see the night sky and laid out in the back of the piece of shit truck and watched." She offered him the bottle. Bucky shook his head, it didn't do shit for him anyway. "And I've done it every year since."

Bucky didn't know what to say. He still can't imagine what everyone went through when the snap happened. He said the only thing he's been able to joke about when it came up, "At least the US has universal health care now?" 

She looked at him with narrowed eyes before leaning back against the cool metal and laughed, "Yeah, at least we have that."

Bucky shrugged and folded his arms over his knees. The meteors picked up their pace and he was taken in by them. "Steve would have liked this, before everything, when he was still a skinny knucklehead from Brooklyn." The sigh he let out was long and he could feel it leave him from deep within his chest. He balanced his chin on his forearms and continued, "He would'a drawn you, he was always drawing. Drawn the both of us looking at the sky."

Darcy rustled next to him and he tilted his head to watch her fold her arms behind her head. "Yeah, I heard he was pretty good at that." Her voice held something back, a little secret that she wasn’t ready to share, and Bucky didn’t press her for it.

"He'd stare at the sky and pull out a little pad and pencil. I would be a tiny little nub but he'd get every last bit of graphite out of it." Bucky turned back to the sky and went silent.

"Obviously you miss him, but do you think he did the right thing?" Darcy asked.

"Fuck no, he's a selfish prick," Bucky blurted out. 

"Don't hold back or anything," Darcy huffed.

The shooting stars whizzed through the sky as he attempted to put words together. "I understand why he did it. He thought Carter was the one. I get it. He went back and stayed and left me in Hydra's hands."

She sat up again and crawled towards him. Bucky could hear her shoes and ass scrape across the metal. "He created an alternate universe, time travel is…" Darcy waved a hand, "wibbly wobbly." Another reference he didn’t understand, one he’d have to begrudgingly ask Same about the next day. She nudged him with a shoulder, "Other people you know might be able to explain it better, but multiverses get tricky. He found you in his universe, he didn't leave you, he couldn't have."

Bucky shrugged and kept his eyes straight towards the sky. "That's what Sam said."

"Sam's a smart guy," her elbow brushed his and she copied his sitting pose. "I met him when I was working on my doctorate, post all the stuff that happened with you in Berlin."

"Guessing you met Natasha too?" 

"I know Thor, I was there for first contact," she pointed with her hand to the sky, "did you see that big one?" He had. The tail of it streamed across the sky for multiple seconds. "So Shield kind of had me on their radar because of that, and uh, doctorate in political science, and I might have wrote my dissertation about interplanetary relations with the help of Thor before the Ultron fiasco."

"Natasha tracked you down?"

Darcy nodded from the corner of his eye. "I was still with Jane and we were...here." She kicked the roof with the heel of her shoe. "Her, Sam, and Steve showed up to lay low. I was very, very vocal about being anti-accords with S.H.I.E.L.D. and I sent some very nasty worded letters. Somehow that was enough for her to trust us." 

"When Steve was still here, in this timeline, before Thanos, he told me about this place if we ever needed to lay low."

"Luckily S.W.O.R.D. doesn't need me for a while." She laughed and reached into her pocket for another joint. "I had to clean the garden up. It had grown all crazy while I was gone." The lighter flicked and she lit it. "You heard about what happened with Wanda." He nodded. Being trapped in your mind by your own grief didn’t sound pleasant. "Had to take some time after that. I'm still trying to process it." 

More meteors fell and it was nice, someone else talking with no expectations. The joint was pushed into his fingers and he brought it to his lips. "Where'd they all sleep?"

She inhaled again when he passed it back, "Jane and I still had the Pinzgauer and it had a full set up in it for people to sleep." The circles she blew from her mouth were perfectly formed. "The way Natasha can roll out of bed and look perfect after sweating and sleeping in the shit box Pinz was disgusting." Her arm was flush with his when he inhaled. "Jane and I shared the master. It's a queen. Seeing Steve curled up on the tiny double...I may or may not have photos of you want to see them." 

Bucky laughed around the smoke, "He still thought he was a little guy sometimes."

"I remember when he got the call that they had got the garbage out of your head." She inhaled and Bucky stiffened. "I don't think any of us were ready for the emotional response." Bucky held the joint and smoked as she uncapped the vodka and took a few swings. "We whipped out a bit of Thor's special brew for him in celebration."

"Was he here when," Bucky inhaled again, "when I was able to call him?"

"I don't think so," Darcy replied and drank again. "Jane and I had to go into the desert for a few days for _science_ and when we returned they were gone. Just a note from Natasha."

Bucky hmm'd and passed her the joint. "Sounds like them."

"Don't think the place has ever been as clean as it was when the three of them were here." She wiggled her toes and let the joint rest between her lips. 

"I've stayed in worse places," he plucked the joint from between her lips. 

They passed the joint between them silently until Bucky stubbed the roach out between them. It must have hit peak shower because when he focused back onto the sky there wasn't a moment without a shooting star. There were too many to wish on and, honestly, he stopped wishing for anything years ago. 

Eventually, Darcy leaned her head against his hard arm and sat silently with him. The meteors whizzed above them and it was actually nice. To be...not alone with no expectations of him. They watched the meteors for hours, silently, with Darcy pulling out another joint right before sunrise to share. 

Sam didn't sleep until noon. Bucky heard him rustle awake before the sun had risen, he must have figured out that he was outside. Bucky tapped on the roof with his heel. Sam stumbled over something before he found his way outside and pulled himself onto the roof with them. 

He lifted his eyebrows before sitting on Darcy's other side to watch the sun move over the peaks of the mountains, flooding the mesa with rich oranges, yellow, and purples. The mountains looked like something out of Steve's sketchbook and he took a deep breath to bring himself back to the present. 

Darcy had the bottle of vodka in her hand again, still capped when she slid towards the edge of the roof. The sun was up and the rays were starting to heat the metal. The two of them watched as she climbed down from the roof to the water catchment barrel and then onto the ground. 

"So," Sam started.

Closing his eyes, Bucky said, "We just watched some meteors, it's the Perseids."

Sam nodded and clapped him on his shoulder. He tried not to think about Steve everytime he did that. Or anytime Sam just _jumped_ from aircraft without a plan. "It's a good sky to see meteors with." They sat there for another half hour until the sun was hitting the roof too hard and his feet started to burn. "I ain't saying nothing man, but…"

"You're saying something though," Bucky shook his head. If he had his long hair he would have hid behind it. He stood and Sam followed. The hot metal was like a slap to the face when he walked to the edge and jumped. Sam landed with an 'oomph' and a cloud of dirt.

"Steve thought she was, and I quote, _swell_." He laughed and walked back into the house. 

Bucky stood in the dirt and stared at the mountains. Sam hadn't tried to hide whatever he and Sharon ended up having the last few months. It wasn't awkward, not like the thing with Steve. Bucky had heard them more than once talking about what they had together or didn't have together. When they parted ways in Colorado, he knew that they had left it pretty open. No expectations from the both of them, something he knew wasn't a problem, but something he didn't know that he'd be able to participate in. 

And Steve was right. Darcy was a swell kind of woman. She had the right kind of sass that he would have chased a century ago. Nowadays, he wasn't so sure. It wasn't like he _hadn’t_ had sex. There had been a woman in Shuri's lab that he'd been sweet on. But, she hadn't made it through the battle. A fucking tragedy.

He dreamt about her once he fell asleep, Bisi, not Darcy. The feeling of her holding his hand and telling him to continue on stuck with him as he was pulled from sleep. He closed his eyes to capture the look on her face one last time before he had to face the rest of the day.

They were stuck in bed together the next night. The wind howled outside and the rain beat down on the metal roof above them like a hammer. The surprise visit of Sharon tearing up the drive in an old Subaru had the three of them on high alert after the alarms started blaring at the west perimeter, the one closest to the main road to the closest gas station. Before they knew who was in the car, Darcy pulled open a trunk from under the queen bed and let them choose a weapon. He was surprised to see her pull out the semi automatic and slap an extended magazine into it. 

The three of them stood around the building and waited until Sharon and a dark haired guy stepped out of the car. They pulled an unconscious woman out by her armpits and Darcy immediately went to grab an emergency med kit with the gun slung across her chest. 

The woman, Bobbi Morse, and Klein were camped on the pull out, Sharon and Sam had somehow fit together on the spare double, and Darcy had shrugged and put her pajamas on like it was no big deal to sleep with an assassin. They wouldn't be watching the Perseids that night, not with that kind of weather. It wasn't awkward, nothing was awkward around Darcy, or not as awkward as it could have been. No one made any untoward remarks about them, but sewing a through and through bullet wound on someone's calf would do that. Their motley crew patched up Bobbi, cleaned up the mess in the bathroom and then the sky opened up. 

He found Darcy behind the house sitting under the awning after the quick pasta dinner they threw together. She had a spliff in her hand, the tobacco was more pervasive than the weed. He sat down next to her and watched the desert get pounded by the rain. Little clouds of dust rose with every heavy drop until the clay started to suck it up. He was sure that the arroyo they had to cross through to get to the property was already flooded. He could see the rain barrels filling up slowly to the side.

"Do you want this? I have to move the overflow hose to the cistern," Darcy waved her spliff at him. 

Bucky shrugged and took it. The weed was sticky around the tobacco and he watched her run to the barrel and unwind a dark hose from the side. The burlap was stopping some of the rain, but it was saturated and large unsteady drops dropped into her hair and down her neck. Darcy pulled the hose and lifted a wooden hatch twenty or so feet into the yard and shoved the hose in. The cover was placed over it gently and she walked back to the stoop.

"Twenty thousand gallon cistern, just in case we run out of water." He handed the spliff back, "I need to put in a second overflow hose to the cistern, but just haven't done it yet." She inhaled deeply and sat back down, her knee length shorts were soaked through and her hair was matted to her head and neck. 

"Little self sustaining place you have here," Bucky kept his eyes forward, a few whiptail lizards had found their way out from their holes and were licking the rain off of the rock that protected them. 

"There's a deep freezer in the barn and a year's worth of dehydrated food." She passed it back.

Bucky killed the spliff with one last drag, "I can stay in the truck if you want."

Bucky could see her side eyeing him, "I told you I don't bite."

"You said you don't bite hard," he smirked. 

Bucky didn't know if he had been flirting or not, it felt like just a little, and when they finally turned in, Darcy had changed quickly and watched as Sharon and Sam switched out Bobbi's saline drip. Klein had Darcy's laptop against his nose and he was deep into a black and blue screen. He typed furiously and didn't look at anyone. 

Bucky could still hear him hitting keys as he stretched on the bed, arms folded behind his head and a billow of wind swirling the smoke from Darcy around the room. Darcy was sitting in the open window, the curtains were pushed to the side and small light over the front door illuminated the downpour. 

The joint between her fingers was against the window frame and her head leaned back, her hair was a dark curly fall all the way down to her ass, past the baggy stretched out Tu-Pac shirt and swishy cloth shorts. She had tossed him her phone and told him to find some music on spotify and now they were listening to GZA, he had opened her library and pushed shuffle until he found something that sounded like something Shuri would play him. Darcy just smiled, nodded, and perched herself on the window. 

Klein was still clacking away. Sam and Sharon, well, thankfully all he could hear were the squeaking of the bed springs. Darcy must have too because she peeked over, grinned and quietly laughed. No noise came from her but her shoulders shook. Bucky shook his head. "Well, Steve would be happy," Darcy whispered.

"Yeah, he probably would," Bucky said back, his eyes closed and he sighed.

"Steve was a funny guy, they don't write about that," she blew out another lungful of circles. "They always wrote about how serious he was. Jim Morita's memoir was the only one that ever touched on how funny he was."

"You read much about the Howlies?" Bucky peeled an eye open and looked at her again.

"I wrote an undergraduate paper about the ethics of the super soldier program, so, yeah," she laughed and unfolded herself from the window. Bucky watched as she slid into the bed on her stomach and stuffed the joint in his mouth. "I might have asked Steve to write me a recommendation letter to get into George Washington University for their Doctorate program while he was here with Natasha."

Bucky puffed on the joint until Darcy took it back. She reached over for the joint after a few minutes and Bucky held the smoke in before looking at her from the corner of his eye. “Yeah, I bet him helping a smart woman was a hardship for him.” Laughing, he exhaled and watched her smoke. The springs from Sam’s room continued to squeak. 

“It’s like being an awkward third wheel,” Darcy huffed. “And Klein is so far down the S.H.I.E.L.D. system rabbit hole he probably doesn’t even know where he is.” She stuck the joint between his lips again for a moment. “I gave him my headphones, so he definitely doesn’t know what is going on beyond the living room.”

“I’ve been a third wheel since we left New York,” he said. His arms fell and he pushed himself up to the head of the bed. “Glad to see him happy, someone ought to be.” 

“You aren’t happy?” Darcy asked. She pulled an ashtray over from her side of the bed and ashed the joint. 

“It’s complicated,” he pulled the joint back. She folded her arms under her chin and looked up at him through her mess of dark curls. “What?” Bucky grumbled around the joint. 

“How old are you?” She unexpectedly asked him.

His eyes blinked a few times before he puffed on the joint a few times. Bucky stuck it between her lips and she inhaled before he took it back. “Cumulatively or what they approximate my age to be with time out of cryo?”

The long line of smoke she exhaled curled around him and she answered, “Out of cryo.”

“Shuri and her team did a cellular analysis. They think I’m close to thirty eight? Thirty nine? But with the serum…”

“Things get a little funny?”

“One way of putting it, doll,” Bucky smirked around the joint. “Do you want the rest of this?” 

“Nah, that’s all you,” she smiled and he felt his stomach flip. It was easy sitting here with her like this. The awkwardness didn’t exist between them. “Just letting you know I’m a blanket hog,” her lips spread into a wide smile and her cheeks were flushed pink, the weed looked like it was warming her up from the inside. Bucky could feel the little bit of heat creeping through his body from it, the serum was right behind it to burn it up. 

“I think I can handle it.” The music changed to something slower and deeper, something with a heavy beat that he would have dragged someone to the dance floor.

Sam’s bed creaked again.

They looked at one another before Darcy dipped her head and laughed into her arms. Bucky tightened his lips around the joint and the laughter stayed in his chest. 

Come to find out, Darcy hadn’t been lying about stealing the blankets. They had eventually fallen asleep somewhere after Klein knocked on the door to ask Darcy to show him where something was in the kitchen but before Sam’s bed stopped creaking. They had kept the window open, the breeze and rain had actually helped him fall asleep. The hand gun and sub-compact rifle helped with that too. Darcy had her own side arm on her night stand, and if that hadn’t made him smile, well, he would have been a liar. 

Darcy had yanked the blankets and Bucky had felt her shift with the blanket wrapped around her. He rolled over and chased the blanket, his right arm reached over her body and gripped the edge. It was like peeling a sloppy burrito open. The blanket unwrapped over her body, he had to nudge her to roll over onto the edge of the bed, pull the rest of the blanket out from under her and reset the blanket over their bodies. Almost instantly, Darcy clasped her side of the blanket and rolled towards him, the edge caught under her body but her arm wrapped across his waist. Darcy mumbled, "Told you," sighed, and fell back into a deep sleep.

The wind and rain continued outside and the small light from the front door cast a yellowish glow through the room. Bucky wrapped his Vibranium arm around her shoulder, closed his eyes and fell back to sleep. 

The soft knock from Sharon woke him up almost instantly. His free arm grabbed the hand gun and aimed at the door. Once she popped her head in, he lowered it. Bucky blinked and slid the weapon back to the nightstand. The rain continued its dance on the roof over them. "What?" Darcy picked her head up from where it was mashed into her pillow and against the side of his chest. Her voice was sleepy and her hair had escaped the quick braid she had put it in before falling asleep. "What'd I miss?" Bucky dropped his arm from around her as she scrambled up."Hey Sharon," Darcy's shirt was crooked and bunched under her tits and Bucky averted his eyes as she pulled it down.

"Do you have another saline bag?" Sharon whispered.

"Uh, yeah, it's out in…" Darcy scrambled up and crawled over his thighs, pulling her shorts down over the round of her ass to the tops of her thighs. He could easily hear her voice as they moved through the house, "Does she need any more pain medication?"

"Maybe when she wakes up?" Sharon whispered back.

"We have a few bottles of percocet in the kit out back…" the back door opened and he couldn't hear them as they made their way to the shed. 

Bucky closed his eyes again, the sun wasn't even up yet. It wasn't quite sleep that he fell into, but he felt Darcy crawl back over his thighs and drape an arm over his waist. Bucky pulled his left arm across her shoulders and slipped back to sleep. 

The whole house woke up two hours later to a sharp cry coming from the couch. Bobbi must have woken in the other room. The both of them scrambled out of bed and through the door. The drip in her arm was almost finished and she had her head dipped back against the cushion of the couch and her hand pressing against her shin. “I’m just a computer guy,” Cameron said as he pulled the blankets off of the couch. 

He made room around Bobbi while Sharon came out to placate Bobbi. Darcy grabbed a small bottle next to the couch and opened it. Two pills were shaken out of it and she handed them to Bobbi. The woman dry swallowed them and chased it with a few sips of the warm water next to the bottle of pills. “Jesus Christ this is terrible,” she hissed out. 

“Yeah, getting shot will do that to you,” Sharon said.

Bucky leaned against the door of the bedroom and watched. They had done a great job field dressing the wound. The sutures he sewed into the middle of her leg to help it stay closed probably weren’t the most comfortable thing. Bucky knew they weren’t the most comfortable, actually, having had to do something similar to himself in the past. Cameron had twisted Bobbi’s belt below her knee and had been leaning on her leg with his whole weight when they had rolled up, it was a good plan to stop the immediate bleeding. 

Sharon mentioned something about the closest S.H.I.E.L.D. base and doing a quick op on her way back to the west coast for Fury, bringing Cameron with her. The op had gone south and they had a full tank of gas and directions to Darcy’s safe house, the closest spot they could do a quick patch job on her until they could get back up. They had assured Darcy that whomever they had encountered on the op hadn’t followed them. 

Sam started to peel the dressing from Bobbi’s leg and the woman hissed. It was pretty bloody still, but it didn’t seem like she had lost even _more_ blood for them to hook her up to a bag of Bucky’s blood, the only one there that could universally donate and felt comfortable enough to do the needle sticks between them. Bucky walked to the bathroom and grabbed one of the many clean cloths Darcy had put on the vanity the day before and wet it with warm water and brought it to them. Sharon was able to wipe some of the dried blood away from the wound before Sam held her leg and Sharon irrigated it with a bottle of saline solution. Cameron looked green around the gills, for someone who had been up to his elbows in her blood the day before. 

Bucky took the soiled cloth back to the bathroom, rinsed it, and tossed it into the washer drum. Back in the room, Bobbi looked between the group and asked, “Can someone help me to the bathroom?” 

“Yeah, yeah we got you,” Darcy unscrewed the bag of saline. Her and Sharon maneuvered Bobbie around. Through the pain, Bobbi bent her knee and planted her good foot onto the cool tile. Bucky moved in and grabbed her by the armpits and hoisted her up easily. Darcy and Sharon moved in and the three of them moved slowly to the bathroom where they closed the door.

He stared at the door for a minute. He could hear Bobbi cussing and the other two women moving around her, trying to make her comfortable. Bucky scrubbed the side of his head and then his jaw before he moved to the kitchen. The stove lit and he dragged the cast iron pan to the burner before opening the fridge. There was a pack of turkey bacon that Darcy said needed to be eaten. Once the pan was heated, he peeled each piece and let it sizzle in the pan. The bath water started to run beyond the door. 

When the women were finally done, they hobbled out. Bobbi had been changed into a pair of Darcy’s sleep shorts and a clean t-shirt from the dryer. Bucky had a hot kettle of water ready for the coffee press, a pile of eggs with chopped onions and peppers in another pan. He fixed a small plate and brought it out to Bobbi who was finally getting settled back onto the couch. Cameron had disappeared to the bathroom. Sam was fixing the coffee press now that he wasn’t in the kitchen.

“Thanks, I don’t know how much I can eat, though,” Bobbi said.

He looked at the wound after she took the plate, “Just a few bites,” he nodded to the side table, “anything will be better than nothing, your stomach will thank you, after those pills.” 

“Yeah, you’re right.” Bobbi nodded and picked up a slice of bacon and nibbled at it. Soon, the five of them surrounded the couch, either on it with Bobbi in Cameron and Sharon’s case, or sitting on the coffee table (Darcy), or him and Sam, perched on chairs they pulled from the kitchen. 

The rain was still coming down outside and it didn’t let up until well into the afternoon. Darcy had checked on the garden and picked the vegetables that had swelled over the last twenty four hours and pulled the house out of the cistern. She turned it off at the capture tank, evidently they wouldn’t need water for a few days with the amount of precipitation they received. Cameron was still elbow deep in computer code, only coming up to ask Darcy some very complicated questions about hacking into specific agencies and Darcy gave him hypothetical scenarios in reply. 

Sam and Sharon had spent a good portion of the day between watching Bobbi, asking Darcy questions about the property, asking after Jane and Thor, and getting updated about what happened in Westview. Her looking at the both of them and drily stating, “Debriefs are for the weak,” had made him smile for the rest of the day. He could get behind that statement.

It was late, again, but the sky was clear. Bucky had dragged two woven blankets to the roof when Darcy asked if anyone wanted to watch the Perseids again. Cameron, Sam, and Sharon had joined for the first few hours but they had slowly made their way back into the house to sleep. The springs from Sam’s bed had started up again and him and Darcy had looked at one another, another shared laugh between them. 

The night wasn’t quiet, not at all. The animals and bugs were out in force, enjoying the night just as much as them. Their blankets were under them and both of them were stretched out. More meteors made their way across the sky and Bucky cherished it. He knew that this was going to end, the calmness of this little slice of peace in the southern New Mexico desert. 

He’s lost in thought, thinking about Steve, and Sam, Zemo and Taskmaster, Natasha and Stark when Darcy sat up, turned and looked down at him. She was illuminated by the sliver of moon setting, but he could see her smile and, his eyes dropped, the silhouette of her breasts through the thin shirt she wore. “Do you want to…” she stopped her question before she finished it and he can make an educated guess as to what she was going to ask. Her eyes weren’t on his face, they were looking him up and down, and it made him preen on the inside.

“Yeah, why not?” Bucky grabbed her gently by the hip and pulled her over him. 

“Really?” She asks, one leg moving to straddle his thighs.

Bucky nodded and Darcy smiled over him before he cradled her head in his left hand and brought her down to meet his lips. “Yeah,” he whispered against her lips. 

It was a surprise that the two of them relaxed into each other and slowly, languidly kissed, holding each other gently and not taking it any further. He was hard, there was no denying it, but she didn’t stray below his waist with her hands. When Bucky slowly turned her onto her back, he pressed his dick against her, the pressure of Darcy pressing back against him had them both smiling into another deep and heady kiss. Her leg wrapped behind his ass and pulled him closer, but they didn’t speed up what they were doing. 

Bucky pulled back after a while and buried his head into her neck and just _breathed_. Whatever it was between them was good. It was fun and the jokes they already had will have him laughing whenever he thinks of her in the future. “Darlin’,” she buried her face against his neck and panted.

“My ass is cold,” Darcy muttered. Bucky chuckled and he felt her rub against him before her hands slipped between them and pushed him up. 

They gathered the blankets and he jumped from the roof first to catch the blankets, then Darcy slid down his body with her hands gripping his shoulders. Bucky pinned her against the wall and stole a hot kiss before they walked to the bedroom window and slipped in. 

Darcy had her shirt and shorts off before she jumped into the bed and Bucky rushed to catch up. His pants pooled around his ankles while she leaned across the bed to open a drawer. Her pale thigh and hip were curved in a way he would have chased back _before_. Hell, if he wasn’t who he was, he’d chase curves like that now. Luckily, they found him. And he wasn’t complaining. 

She reached for him once he made it to the bed and pulled him up her body. They were nude and her skin was pale and soft, and he didn’t even know what to do but stare at her breasts until his right hand made the choice for him and cupped her breast gently. “Steve used to draw women like you,” he said before catching her lips. Bucky adjusted his body until his thigh was between her legs and his dick rested between her hip and his stomach. 

“He drew me once,” Darcy pulled back with a smirk.

“Yeah, like one of his french girls?” Bucky asked, his hand ran down her body and back up, “Doll, you’re gorgeous.”

“Yeah like one of his french girls,” Darcy arched into him and Bucky stared down at him. 

“Really?” Bucky kissed behind her ear and then down her neck. “Did he treat you afterwards like he used to do to the girls in France?”

She scraped her nails down his back and reached for him. “Just to coffee, the next day, in the kitchen,” her small hand wrapped around him and rubbed gently. “Holy fuck, Bucky,” she gasped as he took one of her tight nipples between his lips and sucked hard. When he finally slipped into her, she’s soft and warm and they gasped each others’ names. Thankfully her bed didn’t squeak like the spare, and the sun was rising when he finally let go and spilled into the condom she had wrapped around him. 

Bucky patted the side of her ass gently before he rolled off of her and tried to catch his breath. He patted her thigh again, his eyes closed and she handed him a tissue to tidy up with a laugh. "I think you broke me," Bucky muttered. The condom slipped off of his softening dick and he wiped himself before balling it all in his fist. 

"Good," she sounded pleased with herself. Bucky chanced a look and she was pulling on a t-shirt and her sleep shorts. "Be right back," she crawled over his body and grabbed the tissue from his hand.

He heard the flush before she came back to the room. After she straddled him one more time and swiftly kissed him, Bucky rolled away and pulled his own sleep wear on. Fuck, she _had_ broke him. He was weak in the knees and his thighs and ass burned from the angle she had begged him to hit. 

Bucky sat next to a resting Bobbi with one of Jane's published articles in hand. The subject was foreign to him, but it was something other than worrying about the others riding with Darcy to an undisclosed spot on the property to test something Klein had rigged together from Jane's surplus in the shed to contact Fury, who was, to his surprise, _in fucking space_.

Bobbi's soft voice made him look over at her when she spoke, "I don't think I've had the chance to thank you, properly that is." She winced a little and pulled her body up a little straighter.

Bucky nodded once and closed the journal. "You're welcome." He would have patched anyone of the others. He would have patched himself up too, if it came to it. "It's what I'm trained to do."

Her hand moved and squeezed his arm. "I'm not usually the one sitting, broken, so…" her voice trailed off, "just thanks, for sewing me up, and the food."

Bucky nodded again and asked, "Do you need anything?" She had been on the couch all day, the last time she had been up was right before the crew left that morning. 

"Could you actually help me to the bathroom? This sucks." Bobbi rotated her body to the side of the couch and kept the pressure off her leg. 

The journal was discarded and Bucky moved to her side. "Up you get." She was light in his arms. Bobbi slung an arm around his shoulder and they hopped into the bathroom. "Do you need any help in here?" 

"Yeah, I'm still having problems balancing," she huffed, "It sucks," she said again, emphatically. "Can you just balance me? I can pull my own shorts down."

Bucky snorted, "Yeah, I can do that." He moved behind her and held her by the waist and under an arm again as she pulled Darcy's sleep shorts to her knees. It was clinical and there was no embarrassment between them. Shuffling her to the toilet was easy enough and he stepped out, closed the door, and he only returned when she called to him. 

They were back on the couch, surveillance cameras on the monitor when Bobbi looked at him intently. "What?" Bucky asked.

"The roof creaks," Bobbi smirked. 

"Wasn't trying to hide anything," Bucky smiled and picked up the journal again. 

"Yeah, sure." She laughed and nudged him with her shoulder. "Do you guys have any single friends?"

"You pullin' my chain?" Bucky shook his head.

Her hand rose in front of her body, "I'm just saying, it's hard in this life, you know infiltrating/secret agenting/avenging/you name it. It'd be nice to meet someone I don’t have to hide from."

Narrowing his eyes, he asked, "Man or woman?"

"Either."

"I'll think about it." He returned his attention to the journal and the words blended together. The thought of him setting someone up was foreign. It felt kind of ridiculous, who did he actually know? Sam, some avengers, and a handful of Wakandans. “Maybe you should ask Darcy about who she knows,” he choked out minutes later.

Bobbi’s voice was floaty when she replied, “Yeah, maybe, she does know Asgardians.”Bobbi tapped her fingers against her thighs and continued, “Do you think she would introduce me to Brunnhilde?” He looked over to her and she smirked, her lips curled and eyes brightened. Bucky shook his head and sighed. “I dusted and my partner moved on,” Bobbi said, explaining.

“You’re not the only one,” Bucky said. “Happened to a lot of people while we were gone.” He turned the page backwards to restart the section on Cosmic Background Radiation again. It was heavy, but maybe if he understood a little, he’d go on to learn even more, maybe he’d be able to join Darcy and Jane for a science adventure instead of a... Sam Wilson adventure. 

“Just sucks,” Bobbi said.

“Yeah,” Bucky closed the journal again, “It does.”

The room was quiet, the two of them sitting together in silence until Bobbi laughed out, “I’m not hooking up with Klein because we’re sharing the bed, just so you know, the kid is like a little brother.”

“He’s the last person,” Bucky laughed with her. “Never crossed my mind.” He turned and crossed his arms, “But,” he a smirk creeped across his face, “maybe, you could talk with Sam _and_ Sharon.” Bobbi considered it and Bucky called it a win for the moment. “You need anything, shout, I’m going to go out for a smoke.” She gave him a thumbs up before she grabbed the heavy science journal and opened it. 

It wasn’t until much later, the sun was dropping behind the mountains again when the four others came tearing through the desert on the large truck. Bucky stood, a rolled cigarette between his lips and watched a green Sam open the door and fall out of the truck, “You are never driving again,” he pointed a hand behind him at Darcy.

“Now I know why Thor drives like he does,” Cameron said.

“I had a great time,” Sharon laughed and jumped out the back of the truck. 

The key ring spun around her finger and Darcy slammed the door closed. “You act like you’ve never gone off roading before or something in the muddy New Mexican desert.” The truck was covered in mud, even Sharon and Cameron had a little bit of mud on the backs of their shirts when they turned to pull the gadget out of the back. 

His hands rested on his knees and Sam looked up at her, “I _haven’t_.”  
Bucky walked towards the crew and leaned into the truck bed to help the two of them drag the machine out. “You shouldn’t be allowed on actual roads.”

She shrugged, “I beg to differ,” Darcy’s lips curled and she leaned against the wheel hub of the truck. “Everyone says I have fantastic defensive driving skills.” 

Bucky felt her eyes track him while pulling the machine out. The white tee-shirt he wore rode up to his waist and he hefted the machine, taking more of the weight than Klein and Carter. Bucky looked up just in time to catch her biting the edge of her lip. Her cheeks flushed when he gave her a quick wink and he asked, "Where's it going?"

"Over here," Cameron walked side stepped towards the shade of the shed. 

He moved with the two of them and bent at the knees to drop it. Sharon looked up at him and asked, "Bobbi doing alright?"

"She's ready to get out of here," he said.

Sharon nodded. Cameron walked briskly from them to Darcy and Sam and he could faintly hear him asking if he could call Jane in the house. The large device had failed and he could smell burnt wiring and smoking plastic.

“What do you mean you need me?” Darcy was on her cellphone. It was cradled between her ear and shoulder, hands busy clipping vegetables from the garden before tossing them to him. Bucky had a lap full of vegetables and a hand rolled cigarette between his lips. He could see Sharon and Sam out near the satellite where they spoke quietly to one another. The clouds from the monsoon were about to crest the mountains dropped the temperature from ungodly hot to just hot as fuck. 

He caught another green pepper that was headed towards his face.

“I have a full house, literally a full house,” she said, “I have someone with a gunshot wound on my couch right now, Jimmy.” Darcy listened to the man reply before she replied, “Dude, I have Sam Wilson, Bucky Barnes, Sharon Carter, Cameron Klein, and Bobbi Morse in my house, I can’t just leave them here.” A tomato rolled and stopped at the toe of his boots. “You...what? You want them to come along too?” She sat back on her heels and her shorts hiked up further on her thighs and he could see the edge of her ass. “Two hours? You’re already on the way, aren’t you?” Darcy pulled one last tomato off the vine and stood up, “I’ll ask them, and if they want to come along...What even do you need my help with?” Darcy nodded in understanding and stood up. “I mean, they might just want a ride out of here, you can’t _force_ anyone to do the FBI’s or S.W.O.R.D.’s bidding.” 

She shook her head and slipped the pruners into her pocket. “I’ll be ready, the rest of them, it is up to them.” Her eyes narrowed and she rolled her eyes in his direction before they blinked a few times, “Do you have Scott on the plane with you? You know what, I don’t even want to know. Yeah, uh huh, I’ll see you in a few hours, just drop the jet west of the satellite. We have another storm coming in.”

When Darcy hung up, Bucky picked up the tomato on the ground and put it in his shirt produce pile. “So, Jimmy Woo?”

She shrugged and grabbed the large zucchini from his lap and winked. “Yeah, he has a proposition for _all of you_.” Bucky made a pouch with his shirt and stood. “He said that he’d explain when they landed, so I guess I am going to double the usual food, I don’t know who else he might have on the jet along with Scott and Monica.”

Bucky remembered Scott, how could he not? The man was a force of nature and had helped everyone get back. He was one of the only people who had introduced himself with a firm, almost aggressively happy handshake and had been genuinely glad to meet him, to fight along with him. Antman, Bucky liked. He knew that. 

“I think most of us want to be safe,” Bucky replied while he walked into the kitchen.

“Monica Rambeau and Jimmy Woo are on their way,” Darcy said to Bobbi and Cameron.

“Monica Rambeau?” Cameron asked, “Maybe she’ll be able to get my message to Fury, Jane still can’t figure out why we can’t broadcast, even with the patch.” The patch, the machine they had brought back from their jaunt into the desert had evidently been fried when they hooked it up to the satellite, the going theory was that _someone_ or _something_ was jamming the signal.

Darcy followed him into the kitchen and said loudly, “He said they’d be able to get you some follow-up care, Bobbi.” They all had made fast friends, Bucky had been surprised how easy Cameron and Bobbi’s friendship came. Blood up to your elbows would do that. 

“Hopefully they have the plasma patches,” Bobbi said loudly back.

Between him and Darcy, they made their way through all of the vegetables, putting a large green salad together, prepping a bunch of vegetables to go on the grill, and marinating the chicken they had defrosted yesterday. Everything else in the fridge was non perishable and Darcy had sighed heavily when she shut the door and closed her eyes.

“You alright over there, doll?” Bucky turned the water off at the tap and slid the large chef’s knife onto the drying towel.

She looked up at him from behind her glasses, “Am I selfish for not wanting to go on anymore adventures until I’ve come down from the last one?”

Bucky leaned against the counted and thought. “Nah, and I mean this with all respect, you’re a science gal. You weren’t trained for this kind of life, you were just dropped into it.” Darcy nodded and closed her eyes. Bucky reached out and pulled her into a warm hug. “But, you’re doing better than most people would in your position.” Her head turned and she rested her cheek against his shoulder, “How many times have you helped save the world?”

Bucky didn’t even know how many times she had helped save the world, it was all pieced together by the small stories she had told him and things that Sam had told her on their way to the safe house. “You’re right, you’re right.” She wrapped an arm around his waist, “If I’m not going to help them, what am I actually going to do? More science?” she joked. 

“Nothing wrong with science.” 

They stood in their embrace until Sam popped his head into the kitchen and asked, “Is the jet landing friendly?” 

Darcy peeled herself off of him and winked, she must have made up her mind. He hoped it was to help, no doubt Sam would want to get back into the fray. “Yeah, uh, Monica and Jimmy and who knows who else is with them.”

“Sounds good, are we firing up the grill?” Sam eagerly looked at the bowl of marinating chicken and piles of vegetables. 

The people who exited the jet with Jimmy and Monica surprised Bucky, mostly because once they all gathered around the grill, half of them dropped their disguises and revealed themselves as a team of Skrulls who were helping Fury. Scott, Hope, and a woman named Ava Starr had been roped into the mission by Jimmy and Monica had somehow convinced Clint Barton to leave the farm to help.

It was a good pitch, he will give them that. Vice President Ross and a good part of the United States cabinet needed to be dealt with. Even after Sam and him _dealing_ with them before they found themselves at Darcy’s place. There was still more work to do. And maybe, just maybe, they were the crew to do it all. 

When he wrapped his arm around Bobbi and helped her up the landing of the jet only to watch Darcy buckle herself into Natasha’s preferred seat, did he smile. When she looked up and winked at him before turning to one of the Skrulls to tell them everything she knew about the Hex and exclaiming, “ _Debriefs are for the weak_ ,” again he knew, without a doubt, they’d be alright. 

“Buckle up, it’s going to be a bumpy ride,” Monica’s amused voice said from the cockpit.

“I love this part,” Bobbi whispered when he helped her snap the belts across her chest. 

Silent thrusters engaged and Bucky felt the jet shift. He sat quickly and strapped himself in. Sam rolled his eyes and wrapped an arm around Sharon before tuning into whatever story Scott had started to tell.

Bobbi, Cam, Sharon, Sam, Darcy, and himself. They’d make it out of whatever scrap they were about to find themselves in and come out the other side a little banged up, but knowing that what they were about to do was going to help. And if they made it to space, at least he could cross that off of the bucket list he wrote in 1937 with Steve.

**Epilogue**

Watching Nick Fury stare down a woman who didn’t even come up to his shoulder had been interesting. “You had to bring Lewis, really?”

Bucky stood next to her and Bobbi Morse stood on the other side of her. Her bullet wound completely healed and back to one hundred percent. The ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. agent crossed her arms. “What’s the fuss, you agreed I was the best in the field a week ago.”

“I said you’re the best terrestrial theoretical astrophysicist we had.” He crossed his arms and his leather duster squeaked. 

“And Jane’s back and caught up,” Darcy replied, “She’s the best again, thankfully, takes a load off of my shoulders, you know.”

He narrowed his eye and looked at the crew that had joined Monica to the station revolving around Earth. “And you?” Fury directed the question to Bucky, “You aren’t going to cause me trouble, are you?”

Bucky imitated him, “You see Wilson around? He’s the trouble.”

Fury’s jaw tightened and he pointed to Bobbi, “They’re _your_ responsibility.” Bobbi nodded once and Fury turned on his heel, his coat swishing dramatically around him before he marched off.

The three of them watched as he disappeared through a metal door. “Well,” Bobbi said, “let me show you where you’ll be staying while you’re consulting.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading this. I've been slowly working on it for about four months, waiting for WandaVision to complete so I could tie in our favorites.


End file.
